Logan Amacker crosses the home plate in the fourth inning for the Wolves' only run. (Pat Mashburn, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

One prominent theme this so far this season for Slidell seems to be patience which appears to be bolstered by a large degree of confidence. With opportunities few and far between, the Tigers kept their poise and emerged with a 3-1 non-district victory at home against a gritty Loranger team.

The shot of self-assurance came early with Cannon White’s solo home run which hugged the right field line, coming just inches from the foul pole. With an undeniable mindset working as he approached the batter’s box, White had a gut feeling something good was going to happen.

“As a team, we usually come up clutch in big situations,” White said. “And, in the last few innings, we started putting together some hits.”

Starting pitcher Ryan Rumpza tossed three complete innings with three strikeouts until giving way to Jared Nelson in the fourth with one runner on. Before exiting, he made his presence felt, especially in the second inning, with Logan Amacker on third, and an eye cast toward home plate. Three consecutive strikeouts by Rumpza shut the door on the Wolves’ hopes for at least the tying run.

It was the beginning of a frustrating span for Loranger, leaving runners on base in scoring position for three consecutive innings while the Tiger defense did their part by playing mistake free and squashing a pair of attempted steals.

There was a glimmer of hope in the top of the fourth inning when Blaise Schillace hit a one-out single to shallow right center field, scoring Amacker to tie the game. However, a ground out to end the top half of the inning left Schillace on third, the second time in the last two innings the Wolves left a runner on third.

“Our problem was that we left too many runners on in scoring position,” Loranger coach Jake Abdalla said. “We were able to get some clutch hits, but not with runners in scoring position.”

Where Loranger fell just short, Slidell looked for the opportunity to excel, and with a sense of urgency as Devin Summers led off the bottom of the fifth with a first-pitch single to left field. Blake Van Court reached after getting hit by a pitch and White executed a sacrifice bunt, moving runners over to second and third base. Wolves’ pitcher Hayden Joiner proved he could be clutch too, striking out Will Boler and Drew Lusch to stop the threat.

That was only a momentary obstacle because Slidell took advantage of a pair of gifts from Loranger, via a lead off walk to Khalil Bijou and an error that allowed Stephen Dieck to reach first. Austin Sigsworth pounced on the chance with an RBI single and Van Court added an RBI sacrifice fly three batters later for a 3-1 Tiger lead.

“I just knew that I had to get the job done, so I wasn’t trying to hit the ball out of the park,” Sigsworth said. “The coaches had been telling me to relax in the box, and that’s what I did. I saw the pitch and drove it well.” Much of the hard work before and after games are starting to pay off and the coaching staff sees chemistry developing.

“We swung the bats well and hit some balls hard, right at them,” Slidell coach Mike Alexander said. “We finally executed some of the bunt game that we’ve been working on. It was a credit to Loranger with the way they played which put us in some difficult situations. There was a confidence about ourselves that we were going to score in the later innings.”